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I can't help it, I'm just obsessed with vintage caravans, camping, classic cars, crazy long road trips and exploring the countryside.
This blog is where I share my adventures...
Cresta went to her first New Zealand car show on the weekend - TheRusty Nuts Hot Rod show at Waihi Beach.
We cruised with the Beach Hop crew from Whangamata along the winding hilly roads to Waihi Beach. The scenery was just beautiful, through rolling green farm land and fern-filled forests, I am always amazed by just how beautiful New Zealand is and cruising along in an old car makes you appreciate it even more.
The car show was held right on the beach and the cars all parked up on the sand - crazy!
This too cool for school Woody Wagon looked right at home
The Beach Hop prize giveaway cars got to test out their newly installed running gear and pose for a few photos the winner of the prize draw gets to choose between the Mustang, a Falcon surf wagon or the Zephyr (the Falcon was still having its interior done so wasn't at this show)
This Zephyr comes with a matching vintage caravan and some lucky winner will taken them home for the cost of a $5 program!
I had lots of fun getting so many great pics in the lovely afternoon light
They had a great band called the Recliner Rockers playing on the sand - gotta love that double bass!
What a great way to spend a Saturday afternoon - chilling on the beach, listening to some live music and ogling over all the luscious chrome and immaculate machinery...
Even though I'm more of a classic and custom girl than a muscle car fan - This shot was one that I was particularly happy with - I just love the composition of it and the light, so I turned it into a black and white and it became pure art...
Cresta had lots of photos taken of her and even blokes appreciated her - these cars were a lot more popular in New Zealand than they were in Australia and so many people came up to me and said that they either used to have one, learned ot drive in one, or their parents had one...
it made me happy to have my not-quite-so-flash as the other cars Cresta get so much love.
Of course to me she will always be the most beautiful car in the world!
Well the decision was made and after much deliberation, hesitation and contemplation the Cresta is now pink. Now that it is finally done how do I feel about my decision? AMAZING! I love her more than ever. She is now, without a doubt of hesitation, the car of my dreams...
The most exciting part of the process was hitching her up to my caravan "Betty" and seeing the pink duo together for the very first time - they look soooo cute together.
Our first outing was down the hill from Maleny to the Ettamogah Pub at Aussie World - about half an hour's drive away where we attended the Australia Day Car show. When we arrived the organisers were so happy to see us pull in. After having the event cancelled due to bad weather for the past two years, it had taken us this long to actually make it to this show. Although the weather was a bit grey and gloomy the crowds still flocked in and the reactions to the pink Cresta and Betty were incredible. We ended up winning the viewers choice award! I was so happy that I cried! It was so nice to know that other people loved my pink babies as much as I did and I was the happiest woman on the planet.
It was so funny hearing so many people laugh and seeing the smiles on their faces when they noticed Cresta's new curly eyelashes
Having only just completed my caravan Vicky’s interior makeover the week before, it seemed as good a time as any to hit the road once more and show her off a bit. The occasion: the third annual Garterbelts & Gasoline Nostalgia Festival. Held for the first time in the idyllic location of Mt. Tamborine in the Gold Coast Hinterland, the euphoria started to set in even before we arrived at the showgrounds, as the perfect weather and breathtaking scenic drive up the mountain filled me with a sense of anticipation and adventure. The thrill of taking my little Vicky out and about to a new setting in conditions like this is one of life’s better joys and always makes me so proud and happy to be a caravanner.
Once inside the showgrounds, the pink flamingos were put in place and the banana lounge brought out to take advantage of the sensational summer-like weather. Then it was off the nearby Saint Bernard’s Hotel for a steak meal, some live rockabilly jives and the judging of the Miss Garterbelts & Gasoline pin-up contest. The party went on well into the night and saw me crawling back into the van way past my usual bedtime.
Early on Sunday morning, even with earplugs in, the familiar rumbling of hot rods could be heard as streams of entrants and their pre-1970 vehicles rolled in to the showgrounds in preparation for the big day – the classic and custom car displays. Several vintage caravans, along with Vintage Caravan Magazine’s own “Vicky” were also on display and proved to be very popular with the crowds. And I was stoked to spot this pink Vauxhall!
The great weather continued throughout the entire weekend creating ideal circumstances for a long weekend festival of lowbrow art, tiki carving, hot rods, classic and custom cars, vintage fashion, pinup photography, market stalls, plenty of rockin’ live music and lots and lots of dancing. Along with over 300 show cars, a crowd of almost 4,000 filled the showgrounds with most in full retro regalia creating a sea of slick back hairdos for the guys and circle skirts, petticoats, polka dots and parasols for the gals.
The next day, with all the cars gone, I was lucky enough to get some photos done of Vicky and I by the renowned pinup photographer: the gorgeous Helen Mclean before hitting the road for the 2-hour journey home. Assisted by Miss Christine from Lindy’s Charm School for Girls on hair and makeup, the Helen McLean pinup photo booth proved to be one of the most popular attractions of the festival.
A big shout out has to go to Paul Biagini and wife Amanda for putting together what was probably one of the best and definitely the most fun events I’ve been to in a long time. The choice of location and the enthusiasm and dedication to the nostalgia lifestyle shown by the festival organisers created a fantastic festival vibe and Vicky and I can’t wait for next year’s event!
This is the Saint Bernard from St. Bernard's Hotel at Mt. Tamborine who obviously has a very tough life - I found him lounging in the Pokies lounge!
Vicky the caravan now has a new partner. Having had the ad for this cute classic Cresta pinned to my fridge since August last year, my dream finally came true when she was delivered to my house recently. Every time I had opened the fridge I had looked at the photo in the torn out piece of newspaper and said: "She will be mine, oh yes, she will be mine". I watched over the next few months as the price was reduced and then, in early December, the ad stopped appearing and I worried I might have waited too long and missed out. So when it reappeared just before Christmas at an even lower price I took no chances and bought her.
So it's not the EH Holden I had in mind, but I reckon it's the next best thing. It's a Vauxhall Cresta PB built in 1963 and very similar in design to the EJ Holden as it was also made by GMH. But for some reason, the Vauxhall does not seem to have captured the Aussie hearts the way the EJ and EH's have and when I excitedly tell motoring enthusiasts of my new aquisition I get chuckles and other less favourable responses.
Well, I don't get it. I think she's beautiful and I can't wait to get her restored and, yes, painted pink! At the moment she's in perfect running order, drives like a dream with her very cool "Hydramatic" automatic transmission and comfy bench seats and lots and lots of shining chrome in almost perfect condition.
We are already booked in to make our first appearance at an upcoming clasic car show - not as a show car, but as a vintage van and classic car combo in original condition and I can't wait to get the towbar put on her and take her and Vicky out for their very first photo shoot.
And here's one of the best things about this car; the mascot. Apparently it is off a 1954-55 Velox and has obviously been added by one of the previous owners, but I just love it! All the chrome on the car is all in great condition and it even has a spare grille and hubcap in the boot!
Despite a severe lack of information on these cars, I have managed to find out that there are only around 50 of these cars still on the road in the UK where they were made, and only a handful left here in Australia, so despite what anyone else might think, I reckon I've scored something really special here and I love her to bits!
Maleny to Lennox head, NSW and back 4-6 Feb 2011 (562km)
This trip had been in the planning for quite some time. The weekend away was pre-booked with a whole swag of members from the vintage caravan forums and so yet another weekend of old vans, classic cars, hot rods and good company was assured.
When Mum had told me she was planning a visit over from New Zealand at around this time I'd said "I have a vintage caravan outing then". She had suggested rescheduling her trip until after that. "No way!" I said. "Come along, you'll love it!" Having already made my son promise to join me on this one, I thought why not make it a family affair and drag Mum along too?
Mum's flight got in at 10.30am. At 9am I was still running around Maleny organising last minute things like an oil top up for the car. Then there was some last minute tweaking of the electricals on the tow bar to fix the right indicator which was wired wrong. Thanks to the lovely Maleny mechanic at JLR Mechanical and the Maleny Auto electrician next door for squeezing those last minute repairs in for me! Van all loaded on to the car, and bags all packed, the next stop was a fuel up and air pressure check on all tyres before hitting the road; destination Brisbane International. At around this point, running about half an hour behind schedule I got a text from Mum. "I'm here, where are you?". Ummm, "I'm still in Beerwah!" Oops! I raced down the highway at the speed limit (not something I normally do when pulling a van) to pick up a waiting Mum with the hopes of then dashing down to Yatala to meet the meandering convoy at 11.30 for the rest of the journey. Amazingly we made it! The pace slowed considerably from there, as the older cars and their cute caravans cruised down the highway at a much more leisurely pace, getting us into Byron Bay for a scenic detour and arriving at Lake Ainsworth Caravan Park at around 2pm QLD time.
The weather was awesome! We went for a swin in the surf once camp was set up, and then soothed weary bodies in the warmer and more sheltered tea tree lake. Once night fell, there was a big sausage sizzle at the communal BBQ area and vintage vanners gathered for a feed and a yarn well into the night.
On Saturday morning while some of the vintage vanners decided to go off treasure hunting at local garage sales, Mum, Bas and I went to Byron Bay. Although the beach there was nice, I found the town itself just a bit too full of tourists and hectic busy-ness for my liking, so we parked the car down the southern end of the beach and went for a long walk up to the lighthouse and back and all got severely sunburnt in the process! The lighthouse was beautiful, as always; a most photogenic landmark it is, set against the bright blue sky on the most perfect Summer's day. It was the first taste of a real summer I'd felt in a long, long time. All we've had here in the "Sunshine State" for the past three months or more, is rain!
I accosted a guy in the lighthouse carpark who was applying sunblock and asked if he'd mind if we could have a bit. "Is it always this hot here?" I asked. "Are you not from around here?" he asked. "No, I'm from Queensland!" It was pretty funny.
Anyway, we had a blast, despite looking like beetroots, came back for fish and chips and slept soundly. On Sunday morning Banno's crew made use of their new industrial-sized pancake makers for a communal griddle cake breakfast on the BBQ's - yum yum!
Then all the coolest cars and hot rods lined up and took many willing passengers for a quick blast around Lennox head which caused quite a stir with the onlookers at the local pub! Mum, Bas and I all got to ride in Banno's bright orange rod which went beautifully with the cute Sunliner they had only just finished in time to bring down to this event.
There were a great selection of vans and cars to be seen, a total of 26 vans attended and the whole weeekend was relaxed, stress-free and loads of fun with a real seaside family-holiday feel to the weeekend. And that, after all is what vintage caravanning is all about! Bas had fun with Izzy and the Banno boys - something to do with sparklers, glow sticks and bombs... hmmmm... no damage done apparently!
I managed to get some video footage of all the vans as I wandered around on Sunday morning before everyone packed up to go home. The Olympic fibregalass contingent were all gathered in one corner (they assure me this was pure coincidence). Then there were 1950's bondwoods, 1960's aluminiums, and a few fibreglass bubble shaped sunliners like Joey and Banno's along with a teardop and a couple of folding vans scatterd about within our designated part of the park.
For all her initial doubts, I think I've managed to convince Mum, as I have down with so many people now, that caravanning is not "camping". It's so much more civilized being able to rock up at your destination with your own bedroom all made up just the way you like it, a fully stocked pantry, a working fridge, stove, and electricity. This 'aint no roughing it - I adventure in retro style! Now Mum is even looking at vans for sale in New Zealand so I think I may have hooked another one!
So, the trip home was a lot quicker without the convoy and without incident. I love having that little van behind me, it makes the whole journey so much more fun.
We all had so much fun at Lennox Head that we've decided to do it all again next month.
Congratulations Mum on your first Vintage caravan outing!
My new boss can't work out what it is about the whole custom (or if you wanna be really cool, you can call it "kustom") thing is all about. He knows that I want to write a heap of articles about my obsession with custom culture; restored classic cars, caravans, the whole rockabilly, retro, pin-up girl, burlesque thing. He swears that I'm the only nut that is even interested in that kind of thing and I'm doing my darndest to convince him otherwise. It's only been two weeks - give me time!
Anyway we went to the Morayfield Custom car Show on the weekend and I got to see some of the sweetest looking rides around. I'm not sure what was contributing more to the general humidity - the days of incessant rain we've had, or the combined drool of hundreds of jealous punters like me seriously contemplating ditching the late model Commodore for something a bit more stylish and original like a restored EH - in hot pink of course!
I'm no bogan and I'll admit that my knowledge of mechanics doesn't extend much beyond the ability to change a tyre and check the oil and water, but seeing goregous rides like that makes me want to learn. I was really impressed with how many of the owners of these restored beauties did a lot of the work themselves, and no, they weren't all mechanics, spray painters or professional upholsterers - to most of them this was their hobby -something they did on the weekends and in betwen working at regular 9-5 type jobs - a very expensive labour of love. Now where do I find myself a man like that? And if I did, would he love the car more than me? Would I get jealous of the amount of time he spent tinkering in the garage instead of tinkering on me?
Hmmmm...
Note to self: must look up basic mechanics courses for chicks.
